Typography is one of the qualities upon which we base most of our design work, and the type animation engine in After Effects offers a gamut of ways to express typographic flair. One of my favorites is the ability to control the 3D motion and position of text characters. When combined with simple camera moves, depth of field, and some real-world studio tricks we use every day, the results can be—literally—powerful. Let’s get started.

1 CREATE PROJECT; ADD BACKGROUND, TYPE
Create a New Composition, named “Power of Words,” at HDTV 1280×720 resolution with a 6-second duration, and then double-click the Project panel to import an image to use as a background. For this example, I purchased a vector illustration of blurry lights (#4292586 from www.istockphoto.com). Drag the image into the Timeline at 0 seconds and use any effects to adjust color or contrast, as well as an Effect>Blur & Sharpen>Fast Blur to soften focus. Go to Layer>New>Text, and enter the main text. We’ve styled ours using Helvetica Neue (85 Heavy and 35 Thin), 30-px size, Optical kerning, Tracking 10, black, and centered.

2 ADD AND EDIT 3D CAMERA
Now, go to Layer>New>Camera, choose 15mm from the Preset drop-down menu in the dialog, and click OK (if you get a 2D warning dialog, just ignore it for now). Press P on your keyboard to reveal the camera’s Position properties, and adjust the Z position value to –600 for the time being. Now go to Layer>Transform>Auto-Orient, choose Off, and click OK.

3 ADJUST 3D POSITIONS
Click the 3D Layer switch next to both the text and background image layers in the Timeline, then select the background image layer, hit P, and set the Z position to 3000 in the far distance. Now, press Shift-S to show the Scale property also, and scale the background image until it touches the edges of the full composition.

4 DUPLICATE AND ADJUST TEXT
Twirl up the background image layer’s properties, select the text layer, and press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to duplicate it. Click the Solo box on the left of the Timeline for that layer and in the Character panel, change its color to white. (Note: Go to Composition>Background Color and change the color to black so you can see your white text.) Now, change the Font family to be the same throughout—in this case Helvetica Neue 45 Light, the Size to 24 px, and the Tracking to 100.

5 EDIT TEXT; RENAME LAYER
Now, double-click the T icon next to the layer’s name, then type in a series of words or sentences of your choice. The longer the line, the better the finished 3D strings of text will be, so feel free to type and copy-and-paste to extend the lines. You’ll notice that the layer’s name becomes rather awkward to work with, so when finished, click on the name of the layer, press Return (PC: Enter), and rename it to “Long line of type” or something short to that effect.

6 ADD FIRST TEXT ANIMATOR
Now for the animators! Twirl down the Long line of type layer, twirl down Text, then click the arrow to the right of the word “Animate” and choose Anchor Point to add your first Animator. Click on the name of the Animator, press Return (PC: Enter), and rename it “Animator 1 – Anchor Point” for easy recognition. Go back to Animate and choose Enable Per-Character 3D from the menu, then adjust the Anchor Point Animator’s Y value to sit in the vertical middle of the type—in our example, around –9. This enables rotators we add later to spin from the center of the letters, not their baseline.

7 ADD SECOND TEXT ANIMATOR
Twirl up and deselect Animator 1, then go back to the Animate menu and choose Position, which adds a second animator. Rename it “Animator 2 – Position Wiggle,” then next to the new name, click Add and choose Selector>Wiggly. This is where the fun and creativity really begin!

8 ADJUST POSITION AND WIGGLE VALUES
In the Position value within the animator, adjust the XYZ values to 400, 600, 400, respectively. As you can see, this blows the characters far apart easily. And if you scrub the Timeline, it looks crazy too—but this is easy to control. Twirl down Wiggly Selector 1, set the Wiggles/Second to 0.05 (it will show 0.1 when you press Return [PC: Enter]), and most importantly, set the Correlation to 96%. This causes the letters to remain more in line with each other, forming a gently rippling line of type.

9 ADD THIRD TEXT ANIMATOR
Deselect all, go back to the Animate menu, select Rotation, and next to the new animator, click Add and choose Selector>Wiggly. Rename this animator “Animator 3 – Rotation Wiggle,” then adjust the X, Y, and Z Rotation selectors to 1x, 2x, 1x, respectively. Now twirl down Wiggly Selector 1 and adjust the Wiggles/Second to 0.35 and the Correlation to 0%, and scrub the Timeline. This correlation value allows the random rotation to apply to the characters individually, which looks very cool.

10 ADD FINAL ANIMATOR
Deselect all, go back to the Animate menu, choose Character Offset, and then add a Wiggly Selector into that new animator. Rename this animator “Animator 4 – Character Offset,” then go to the newly added Character Offset value and set it to 10, and the Character Alignment to Center. Now adjust its Wiggles/Second to 2 and its Correlation to 0%, then view the results. Looking pretty cool!

11 ADD RANDOM LAYER ORIENTATION
Now to adjust the entire layer’s rotation in anticipation of the next step, twirl up the entire text layer, then hit R to reveal its Rotation property. Hold down Option (PC: Alt), click on the Stopwatch for X Rotation to add an expression field, and type in wiggle(0,180), then hit Enter to confirm. This will randomly rotate the layer up to 180° on the x-axis, but with no motion. Now repeat this process to add expressions to both the y- and z-axes, using wiggle(0,360) and wiggle(0,180), respectively.

12 DUPLICATE, DUPLICATE, DUPLICATE
Everything we’ve created so far is referencing Wiggle values, which are created randomly in After Effects on a layer-by-layer basis, so if we duplicate this layer, we’ll get wildly different results. Twirl up the text layer, select it, then press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to duplicate it. Not only do you see a new spread of text characters in completely different positions, but the layer name has added “2” to the end, which is why we renamed it. Now, duplicate as many times as you like to suit your design.

13 ADJUST AND ANIMATE CAMERA
Turn off the Solo icon for all of the type layers, then select the Camera 1 layer and change its Z Position value to –900. At 00:00 seconds, click the Position Stopwatch to add a keyframe, then scrub to 04:00 seconds and change the Z position value to –300. Select that second keyframe and go to Animation>Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease In (PC: Shift-F9), or adjust the velocity to suit your own design.

14 ADD DEPTH OF FIELD; MOTION BLUR
Finally, press AA to reveal the Camera Options, then turn Depth of Field to On. Change the Focus Distance to 300 and the Aperture to 80 pixels—this gives us perfect focus on the final wording line at 04:00. Feel free to turn on the Motion Blur switch for all of the text layers, then render your final movie.

A really powerful, and even slightly disturbing, motion piece created easily and quickly thanks to some careful planning, animators, wigglers, and expressions, and of course some good “Energi.” Enjoy!

ALL IMAGES BY STEVE HOLMES UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

If you’d like to download a finished movie for this tutorial, just click here. All files are for personal use only.

1 CREATE ILLUSTRATOR TEXT
Create a new Adobe Illustrator document (File>New), name it “Game Night,” select Video and Film in the New Document Profile drop-down menu, and set the size to 720×540 pixels. Under the Advanced option, choose the Dark preset for the Transparency Grid—this will ensure our white text will be visible as we work on it. Click OK. Select the Type tool (T), click on the page, and add your type, choosing the font and size to suit your design. Here, we’ve used a font from www.veer.com called Newspeak-Heavy, which will look great when extruded. Set the Fill color to white and the Stroke to none.

2 CONVERT TO SHAPES; RELEASE TO LAYERS
Select the type with the Selection tool (V), then go to Type>Create Outlines. Now we need to divide the type so that each letter is on a separate layer, so go to Object>Ungroup, then from the Layers panel flyout menu, choose Release to Layers (Sequence). Shift-click all the resulting sub-layers to select them and drag them up above Layer 1 in the Layers panel. Drag Layer 1 to the Trash icon to delete it, as we don’t need it. Now we’re ready to apply the 3D effect to each one of the shapes and tweak it as necessary.

3 ADD 3D EFFECTS
Select the first letter shape, choose Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel, and then simply press OK to exit the dialog—we’ll return shortly to adjust it. Shift-click all the other letters on the artboard to select them and choose Effect>Apply Extrude & Bevel. This applies the effect to each letter individually. At this stage you might want to choose View>Hide Transparency Grid to make the 3D shapes easier to see. Now that every layer has its own 3D effect, we’re free to adjust the Extrude & Bevel properties on each letter to make the design much cooler.

4 EDIT 3D STYLES
Select a letter, and in the Appearance panel (Window>Appearance) click 3D Extrude & Bevel. Adjust the rotation and camera perspective values to angle the letter slightly and give the extrusion some perspective. Adjust the Extrude Depth value and add some extra lights if desired—this is a creative process—you’re in control of the final look. When done, click OK, then repeat this process for each letter. Rearrange the layers and use the Selection tool to move individual letters so the word “Game” appears to be sitting on top of the word “Night.” When finished, be sure to Save the document.

5 IMPORT TO AFTER EFFECTS; PRE-COMPOSE
In After Effects, go to File>Import>File and select the Illustrator document. Choose Composition in the Import As drop-down menu and click Open. Double-click the new Game Night comp to open it, press Command-K (PC: Ctrl-K), set the size to 720×540 px, the Duration to 5 seconds, and click OK. In the Timeline, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) the layers that make up the word “Game” to select them, choose Layer>Pre-Compose, and name it accordingly. Repeat this process for the other word—now we have only two layers, which are much easier to control. Import a texture image to use as a floor. The one used here is free, found in the concrete section of www.textureking.com.

6 DESIGN 3D SCENE
Drag the texture image into the Timeline, rename it “Floor,” then double-click it to open it in a Footage viewer. Use the Rectangle tool (Q) to draw a mask around the entire layer. Grab the Selection tool (V) and drag the mask down about a fifth of the way from the top edge. Hit F for Mask Feather, unlink the Chain, and set the Vertical axis to 300 pixels. Close the Footage Viewer, then click the 3D Layer switch for all the layers. Select the Floor layer, press R, and change its Orientation to 270° on the x-axis. Drag it down to the bottom edge of the comp. Move the word layers to rest on the floor and each other.

7 APPLY BASIC ANIMATION
Select the GAME layer, go to frame 18 in the Timeline, and hit Option-P (PC: Alt-P) to set a Position keyframe. Return to the beginning of the Timeline (Home), and drag the layer upward on the y-axis until it’s offscreen. Shift-click both keyframes to select them and go to Animation>Keyframe Assistant and apply the Easy Ease velocity to them. Now, go to Animation>Keyframe Velocity, and set the Outgoing Velocity Influence to 100%. To enhance the effect, feel free to add Position keyframes to the NIGHT layer for a slight position shift at the moment of impact.

8 LIGHTS & SHADOWS
Go to Layer>New>Light, change Light Type to Point, set the Intensity to125%, turn Casts Shadows off, and click OK. Press P and adjust the Position attributes to 360, 75, and –200. Since the elements we’ve created are without true 3D extrusion, we need to add their shadows manually. Select the NIGHT layer, press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to duplicate it, and rename it “NIGHT Shadow.” Delete any position keyframes, and hit S to show the Scale property. Unlink the Chain icon, scale the Y value to 20%, then press R and set the X Orientation to 270°, and move it to just on top of the Floor layer.

9 MORE SHADOWS!
With the “NIGHT Shadow” layer still selected, go to Effect>Generate>Fill, and then choose Effect>Blur & Sharpen>Fast Blur. In the Effect Controls panel (ECP), set the Color to black, and set the Blurriness value to 20. Now repeat Steps 8 and 9 to create a shadow for the GAME layer: duplicate it, rename it, remove any keyframes, scale its height, rotate it (you may have to experiment with the angle of rotation), move it up to appear on top of the NIGHT layer shapes, fill it with black, and blur it. Hit T for the Opacity value, and drop it to 80%.

10 ANIMATE SHADOW SCALE
Now we need to animate the GAME Shadow to follow the animation of the word falling. Select the GAME Shadow layer, go to frame 18 in the Timeline, and hit Option-S (PC: Alt-S) to set a Scale keyframe. Now move back around 10 frames, and set the X and Y scale to 0. This nicely enlarges the shadow as the word falls from the top of the screen. For more reality, you could also keyframe the layer Opacity, getting darker as the word gets closer.

11 ADD PARTICLES
Go to Layer>New>Solid, name the solid “Particles,” click the Color swatch, choose a white color, click OK, click Make Comp Size, and click OK again. Drag the layer to start at 18 frames in the Timeline, then go to Effect>Simulation>CC Particle World. In the ECP, set the Grid to Off, then change the Birth Rate to 300, and click the Stopwatch to apply a keyframe. Move one frame forward (Page Down) and set it to 0 so there are no new particles after this point. Adjust the Longevity to 6 seconds, which should be enough for our 5-second comp.

12 BASIC PARTICLE SETTINGS
Twirl down the Producer in the ECP, change the Position Y value until it sits between the word layers (around 0.05 should do the trick) then set the Radius X to 0.4—this will spread particles across the width of the whole NIGHT layer. Under Physics, change Animation to Viscouse, Velocity to 0.60, Gravity to 0.010, and Resistance to 3.0. Under Particle, change Particle Type to QuadPolygon, Birth Size to 0.020, Death Size to 0.050, and Size Variation to 100%. Sample from the floor’s bright color for the Birth Color and its dark color for the Death Color, and set the Transfer Mode to Screen.

13 ADVANCED PARTICLE SETTING
In the ECP, click the word “Options” near the name of the effect, then click Opacity Map in the resulting dialog. Choose Constant from the Presets drop-down menu. Click OK twice, then duplicate the Particles layer for a shadow version. Select the duplicate, return to the effect’s Options again, click Rendering, and set Render Animation to Projected on Floor. Click OK twice, then position this layer between the Floor and NIGHT Shadow layers in the Timeline. In the ECP, change the Particle Birth Color to be the same as the Death Color. Click the Toggle Switches/Modes button, change the layer blend mode to Multiply in the Timeline, then add a Fast Blur effect with a Blurriness of 2. Perfect!

14 FINAL EMBELLISHMENTS
Go to Layer>New>Camera, choose the 15mm Preset and turn on Enable Depth of Field. Set the F-Stop to 2.0, the Blur Level to 300%, and click OK. On frame 16, twirl down the Camera layer and then twirl down Transform. Move the Camera slightly back on the z-axis, and set a keyframe for both Position and Point of Interest. At frame 18, move the camera on the z-axis towards the type, and then on the last frame in the Timeline, move it a few more pixels. Select all the new keyframes and apply an Easy Ease. Enable Motion Blur for All Layers, and render. True 3D? You tell me…. Enjoy!

ALL IMAGES BY STEVE HOLMES UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

Lots of programs and plug-ins create cool photo montages easily and quickly—handy for such things as photo DVDs and slideshows. But what if you don’t have those programs or plug-ins, or you want something a little more creative (yet still as easy to replicate and reuse) using a software program you already own? A few tricks and techniques in After Effects will have you up and running in no time at all.

If you’d like to download a finished movie for this tutorial, visit www.layersmagazine.com and navigate to the Magazine section. All files are for personal use only.

1 IMPORT SLIDESHOW ASSETS
In After Effects, double-click in the Project panel to bring up the Import File dialog, then locate and import the images you wish to use. For our project, I’m importing three folders of photos of yours truly training in the Italian Alps before a big race in Spain and one paper-texture image I downloaded from iStockphoto to use as a background. Note: Though not imperative, ensuring your snapshot images are all the same pixel size will make this project a breeze to complete at the end.

2 CREATE COMP & ADD ELEMENTS
Select your chosen background texture image (ours is called “Paper 1280.psd”) and drag it onto the Create a New Composition icon at the bottom of the Project panel. This creates and opens a new Composition at the size of your image—ours is 1280 pixels square with a Duration of 10:00 (Composition>Composition Settings). Now, choose any one of your snapshot images and drag it into the Timeline above the texture image. Press S on the keyboard to reveal its Scale property, and adjust it down to 20% (or close to the visual).

3 ADD PHOTO EDGE
Probably 99.99% of digital images don’t come with a white edge, so we need to add one—but not in Photoshop on every image! Here’s a neat trick: With the snapshot layer selected, double-click on the Rectangle tool in the Toolbar to add a mask automatically around the layer. Now, go to Effect>Generate>Stroke. In the Effect Controls panel (ECP), adjust the Brush Size to 50 px, Brush Hardness to 100%, and Spacing to 0%. Nifty, huh? Nice thing is, we can reuse this on the other images later!

4 ADD DROP SHADOW
As we’re doing this quickly and efficiently, we’re not using 3D layers and lights to create shadows, so we need a quick effect to raise the photo(s) off the texture. Go to Effect>Perspective>Drop Shadow. Note: Radial Shadow is much more realistic and controllable for single images, but for a montage like this, we can keep it “cheap and cheerful.” In the ECP, set the Distance to 0 px and Softness to 120 px (or adjust to suit your images, as different sizes will yield different results).

5 KEYFRAME POSITION & ROTATION
At 00:20f on the Timeline, press P and Shift-R to reveal the snapshot’s Position and Rotation values, and click their Stopwatches to add keyframes. Now press V (Selection tool) and move the image to the bottom of the Comp, then hit W (Rotate tool) and adjust its angle a touch. At 00:00f, rotate the image in the opposite direction as much as you wish, then press V and drag it to its off-screen starting position (as shown). While you’re here, click the layer’s Motion Blur switch also (circled).

6 EASE IN KEYFRAMES & ADJUST VELOCITY
Drag a marquee across the keyframes at 00:20f to select them, then choose Animation>Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease In. If you scrub the Timeline now, the spin and movement do slow down, but not “heavily” enough. Click the Graph Editor icon in the Timeline, then click just the Position value to show its motion velocity curve. Select that second keyframe to show its handle, then Shift-drag the handle to the left to force the velocity to decelerate very quickly from the start and slowly ease into the second keyframe. Repeat the exact same process for the second Rotation keyframe also.

7 DUPLICATE LAYER & ADJUST ANIMATION
With Steps 3–6, we’ve prepared a single layer which can be reused many times, and whose core image can easily be replaced later on. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to duplicate the layer and, ensuring you’re at 00:20f (to avoid adding intermediate keyframes by mistake), move and rotate this layer to a different end position and angle. Then, go to 00:00f (the Home key does this) and move and rotate (keep using those tool shortcuts!) this layer to a different start position and angle.

8 RINSE & REPEAT
Now, repeat Step 7 (duplicate and adjust) as many times as you wish, making sure to only adjust the Position and Rotation values when you’re at 00:00f and 00:20f. Feel free to have the images come in from any position around all four corners of your comp, spinning as many times as you desire—this is your photo montage! Try to position the “rows” of images so they build upward from the bottom of the texture background to the top, perhaps leaving a gap for titles (or DVD menu buttons) later on.

9 SEQUENCE LAYER TIMING
Now to make the layers animate in an offset sequence: Press F2 to deselect all layers, then select your bottommost layer first. Now, hold down Shift and select the topmost layer (this is important as it sets the sequence order). Now go to Animation>Keyframe Assistant>Sequence Layers, turn Overlap to On, Transition to Off, and set the Duration to 10 frames less than your Timeline length (in our example, the Timeline is 10:00f, so we’ll key in 09:20f). Now click OK, and preview your animation. Very cool!

10 LAYER REPLACEMENT
Now for the easy part—replacing all the images! Scrub along the Timeline to 08:00, or to where you can see all of your images, and select one of the layers. In the Project panel, select the image you wish to replace it with, and simply press Command-Option-/ (PC: Ctrl-Alt-/) to replace the animated layer’s contents, but retain the border, shadow, keyframes, and velocity control. “Rinse-and-repeat” this step for all your images, and when you’re done, be sure to Save your work.

11 NEST COMPOSITION
All the hard work’s now done, so let’s wrap this up quickly and easily. Close this composition, then press Command-N (PC: Ctrl-N) to create a new composition. Choose your desired size and format from the Preset menu (in our case, HDTV 720), Name the comp “Final Comp,” and click OK. Now, drag your master animation comp from the Project panel into the Timeline of the new comp, then Shift-drag it upward so its bottom edge aligns with the bottom edge of the new composition.

12 ANIMATE POSITION
At 00:00f, press P to reveal the nested layer’s Position value, and click the Stopwatch to add a keyframe. Now scrub along to 08:00f, and Shift-drag the nested layer down (or adjust the Y Position value in the Timeline) until its top edge aligns with the top of the composition. Be sure to choose Animation>Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease In again on that second keyframe, then hit 0 (zero) on your keypad to create a RAM Preview and see your beautiful composition in motion.

13 FINAL EMBELLISHMENTS
Go to Layer>New>Adjustment Layer, then Effect>Color Correction>CC Toner, and set the Midtones swatch to a mid gray. Now choose Effect>Color Correction>Photo Filter, and choose Warming Filter (81) from the Filter option. Press T to show the layer’s Opacity property, go to 04:00f and add an Opacity Keyframe. Go to 07:00f and change the Opacity to 0% to bring the original colors in at the end.

14 ADD FINAL TEXT
Add your final titles and this reusable, very cool photo-montage project is complete. Enjoy!

ALL IMAGES BY STEVE HOLMES, EXCEPT AS NOTED

Combining vector art and shapes inside After Effects can yield some great and unexpected results. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to set up the popular “popping” animation effect with very little effort. Then we’ll add the new CS4 Wiggle Transform operator combined with the Repeater to explore some fun and random animations.

If you’d like to download a finished movie for this tutorial, just click here. All files are for personal use only.

1 PREPARE LAYERED ARTWORK
I always prepare my graphics in Illustrator, because of its vector qualities. This workflow allows me to keep all the layers (as with Photoshop) and yields a much clearer and crisper result even when scaled up within After Effects. One important note: Make sure to set the layer structure correctly and always name your layers in a logical manner. Working in an organized way will make the animation process faster, making life much easier if you need to go back and change things later on.

2 IMPORT FOOTAGE; CREATE BACKGROUND
Import your artwork into After Effects by choosing File>Import>File. Be sure to set Import Footage to Composition and set the Footage Dimensions to Layer Size. The spec for this project (Composition>Composition Settings) is a square-pixel comp of 720×534 pixels (from the Preset drop-down menu, choose NTSC D1 Square Pixel—these are the new CS4 corrected PAR dimensions for NTSC and should come up automatically if you set it in Illustrator), 29.97 fps, and 5 seconds in length. Double-click the imported comp (ours is “Flower Power”) to open it, ensure nothing is selected, and then double-click the Rectangle tool (Q) to create your first shape background.

3 DESIGN BACKGROUND
Select Shape Layer 1 and in the Toolbar, set the Stroke to 0 px, click the word Fill, choose a Radial Gradient, then click OK. Next we’ll define two suitable colors that will blend well with the design. Click on the Gradient Fill icon in the Toolbar and click on each color stop to set the colors to fit your design (we used dark purple and warm orange). Press OK to confirm, then return to the Selection tool (V), and drag the tiny right circle on the screen until you’ve reached the edge of the comp, which will define a nice even gradient from the middle to the edge of the screen.

4 REORDER LAYERS; CLICK SOLO
With the shape layer selected in the Timeline, press Return (PC: Enter), rename it “Background,” and then use the keyboard shortcut Shift-Command- (PC: Ctrl-) to send it beneath all the layers.
Next, we want to set an interesting popping animation that reveals all the layers sequentially. We only need to set it for one layer and then use the same settings for the other layers, with minor adjustments as needed. Let’s start by selecting any one of the artwork layers and press S to show the Scale properties. At this point, I’d also suggest clicking the Solo switch to visually isolate this layer.

5 CREATE MAIN “POP” ANIMATION
Go to 10 frames along the Timeline and click the Stopwatch next to Scale to set a keyframe with the current value of 100%. Return to the first frame (0) and change the Scale to 0%. Next, we want to change the velocity and the ease so the animation will grow a bit beyond full size before ending at 100%, and we can use the Graph Editor very nicely for this. Click the Graph Editor icon in the Timeline, select the last keyframe, click the Easy Ease In icon to convert the keyframe, then adjust the curve handle upward to extend the scale above 100%, before it drops back in.

6 DUPLICATE ANIMATION
Click the Graph Editor icon to return to the regular Timeline view, then Shift-select both keyframes for the Scale property. Copy them to memory (Command-C PC: Ctrl-C). Now, select the rest of the layers in the comp (excluding the Background and the layer you’re copying from), and Paste (Command-V PC: Ctrl-V) to apply the same animation to all of them. “Un-Solo” the layer you worked on originally, then press 0 on the keypad for a RAM preview, and confirm that all layers now have the same “pop” scale animation.

7 TRIM AND DISTRIBUTE LAYERS
Our basic animation is now in place, but the timing is the same on all layers. Let’s fix that with a few short steps. First, select the bottommost artwork layer (not the shape background), then hold down Shift and select the topmost artwork layer. This is very important, as it will set the order of the layer sequencing. Now go to 10 frames on the Timeline, press Option- (PC: Alt-) to trim all the layers to 10 frames, then Control-click (PC: Right-click) on any selected layer and choose Keyframe Assistant>Sequence Layers.

8 SET OVERLAP
In the Sequence Layers dialog, check the Overlap box on, set the Duration to 5 frames, and Transition to Off, then click OK—this now offsets the layers by 5 frames in time sequentially. Now, while the layers are still selected, go to the end of the Timeline and press Option- (PC:Alt-) to extend their visibility till the end. Create a RAM Preview to see the new results—nice!
That was easy, wasn’t it? But we’re not done yet—you’ll want to work on each element individually and set the correct Anchor point, so the growing effect will take place from the correct part of the layer.

9 ADJUST ANCHOR POINTS
The easiest way to do this is to use the Pan Behind tool (Y). Deselect all the layers (F2), select your first layer, and then drag the center Anchor Point to the desired point from which the animation needs to occur. In this step, we selected and adjusted the Leaves layer’s anchor point, so the animation now occurs from its bottom-left corner. Repeat this process for each of your artwork layers, and you’ll really notice the difference!

10 EMBELLISHMENT SUGGESTIONS
To enhance the motion, I’ve added a Rotation spin on top of the scale to the Lines layer, and for my Rainbow layer, I’ve used the Radial Wipe effect to reveal it. You might want to add some changes to the timing to add more variations to your design.
Next, we’ll spice up our scene by adding a few elements from inside After Effects, starting with a simple shape layer in order to take advantage of the brand-new Wiggle Transform operation in CS4.

11 SHAPE BUILDING
Deselect all, choose the Ellipse tool (nested under the Rectangle tool Q), and create a small circle in the center of the screen. Move this layer to begin at 1 second along the Timeline. Solo this element, and let’s modify it. Twirl down the Ellipse 1 property in the Timeline and shut the Eye for the Gradient Fill. Twirl down Stroke 1. Use the Eyedropper next to Color and sample one of the colors (bright green in our example), and set the Stroke Width to 5 px. Name this layer “Bubbles” and let’s have some fun with it….

12 WIGGLE TRANSFORM
Select the Bubbles layer and in the Timeline choose Add>Repeater. Twirl open Repeater 1 and change the Copies to 20. Then twirl open Transform: Repeater 1; set the Position to 50, 0; and set the Scale to 80%. Now for the fun part—from the same Add menu, choose the new Wiggle Transform operator. Before we adjust it, drag Wiggle Transform 1 to below Repeater 1 so it will wiggle all the repeater’s copies individually! Now twirl it open, set the Wiggles/Second to 0.5 and the Correlation to 20%. Twirl down Transform, and change the values until you’re satisfied.

13 WIGGLE ADJUSTMENTS
In my comp, I’ve set the numbers pretty high so the circles are flying all over the place, giving the illusion of fast, popping bubbles. Pay attention to the fact that you must change the default values if you want the Wiggle Transform to work well. Feel free to change the position of the Bubbles layer until it looks the best overall, and change its layer order as desired to integrate the bubbles better into the design. Finally, set a global Scale animation to reveal the whole layer (copy-and-paste the Scale keyframes as we did in Step 6).

14 FINAL TOUCH
Let’s add a small airplane to circle the art. Select the Text tool, choose the Wingdings font in the Character panel, move to 1 second along the Timeline, click in the comp, and press Shift-Q (PC: Shift-J) for the airplane symbol. Select the Text layer and create a circle mask around the art with the Ellipse tool. In the text layer, twirl open Text and then Path Options and set the Path to Mask 1 to align the airplane to the circle path. Set Reverse Path to On and set keyframes for the First Margin value at the start and end of this layer, adjusting them until you’re happy with the position and speed of the animation. Enjoy!

1 CREATE COMP; IMPORT/CREATE FOOTAGE
Start out in a blank After Effects CS3 project, and press Command-N (PC: Ctrl-N) to create a New Composition. In the Composition Settings dialog, choose HDV/HDTV 720 29.97 from the Preset menu, enter 6 seconds for Duration, and click OK. Then create, or double-click in the Project panel to import, an item you wish to move the camera around in 3D space. (For this flyby title animation, I’m importing a clip named SBE173H from Artbeats.com—an HD clip of a 3D-animated soccer ball.) A circular element like this will add even more 3D depth to the scene. When imported, drag the clip into the Timeline.

2 MASK CLIP
In the Timeline, double-click the ball clip to open it in a Layer window, then go to the Toolbar and choose the Ellipse tool (nested under the Rectangle tool [Q]). Position the cursor in the center of the ball, start dragging, and then hold down Shift and Command (PC: Ctrl) to proportionately constrain and center the circle. Double-click a point on the mask to position and scale it to fit the edge of the ball, then close the Layer window and select the main Selection tool (V). If you click the Toggle Transparency Grid icon in the Comp window, you can see that the ball is now separated from the background.

3 ADJUST SPEED; SCALE BALL; ADD SOLID
We want to make the ball spin faster, so click the {} icon at the very bottom left to expand the Stretch pane in the Timeline, then click on the ball’s Stretch value and change it to 25%. Close the time Stretch pain by clicking the {} icon again. With the ball still selected, press the S key to reveal its Scale property, and shrink it to the appropriate size (60% in this example). Now, go to Layer>New>Solid, make the Width and Height 1500×1500 pixels, click the color swatch, choose a bright color for visibility, and click OK. Click OK again, and then click-and-drag the solid below the ball in the Timeline.

4 3D LAYERS; MOVE SOLID
In the Switches column, click the boxes below the 3D Layer icon next to both the ball and the solid—nothing will change, but now we can add perspective. In the Comp window, ensure that your 3D View Popup is set to Active Camera. Select the solid in the Timeline and press P, Shift-R, then Shift-S to reveal the Position, Scale, Orientation, and Rotation properties. Change its X Rotation value to 90° and its Y Position value (the second field on the Position line) to 900 to place the solid below the ball, acting as a floor. Finally, change the Scale to around 2,000%.

5 ADD GRID & ADJUST
Animating in 3D space is much easier when you have reference objects or lines to work with—but a ball and a flat color solid don’t look much different from any angle! So go to Effect>Generate>Grid, and a square grid appears on the solid. Set the Blending Mode (in the Effect Controls panel) to Normal to see the original color of the solid, then change the grid settings to suit your needs. You can always switch Active Camera to Custom View 1 in the Comp window and then use the Orbit Camera tool (C) to view the scene from a different angle—showing the ball as a flat 2D object.

6 ADD CAMERA; AUTO-ORIENT BALL
Switch back to Active Camera view, then go to Layer>New>Camera. Choose 35mm from the Preset menu, ensure the Enable Depth of Field checkbox is turned off, and click OK. As you saw in Step 5, looking at the ball from a different angle reveals a problem—the 3D layers are flat. But here’s a super little trick: Select the ball layer in the Timeline, go to Layer>Transform>Auto-Orient, choose Orient Towards Camera, and then click OK. Now the ball will auto-rotate to stay face-on to the camera!

7 ANIMATE THE CAMERA
Let’s test this by animating our camera now. At 0 seconds in the Timeline, select the Camera 1 layer, hit P to open the Position property, and set the X, Y, and Z values to 2700, 500, and –1000, respectively. Click the Time-Vary Stopwatch icon to add a Position keyframe, then scrub along the Timeline to 5 seconds and change the values to –800, –600, and –300. Now scrub back and forth along the Timeline (or hit 0 on the keypad to RAM Preview), and you’ll see the camera and grid show movement, and the ball always looks totally 3D. Very cool but…

8 ADD NULL; ANIMATE
…the ball is always dead-center of the screen, and this looks fake. So let’s do a small trick to fix that. At 0 seconds, go to Layer>New>Null Object, and then click the 3D box for the new Null 1 layer in the Timeline. Press P to bring up the Position property, change its X, Y, and Z position values to –600, 360, and 0, respectively, and then click the Stopwatch icon to add a keyframe at 0 seconds. Scrub along to 5 seconds and change the Null’s X, Y, and Z position to 500, 400, and 400. This is basically animating the Null to move in close proximity to the ball’s position, but with a different speed and end result.

9 EXPRESSION CAMERA POI
So now we can tell the camera to look at the Null—and not the center of the ball—during its position animation, and this will offset the motion beautifully. Select the Camera layer and hit A to reveal its Point of Interest property (POI). This, by default, is always pointed at the center of the 3D scene, but it helps greatly if this is told to follow an object instead. Hold down Option (PC: Alt) and click on the POI Stopwatch icon, click-and-hold the Expression Pickwhip (swirl) icon, and drag it to the Null 1 layer’s Position value.

10 ADJUST ANIMATION
Now when you RAM Preview, you can see a much more cinema-like feel to the camera movement—the ball goes off-camera slightly to one side, and the final resting position is more controllable, which allows for insertion of text, titles, and other elements. Go back to the Camera Position keyframes (select the Camera layer and press P), scrub to 5 seconds, select the second keyframe, and adjust its values to –800, –1000, and –800. Now Shift-click the final Position keyframe for the Null 1 layer so that it’s selected as well. Go under the Animation menu and choose Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease In to ease the motion in slowly.

11 ADD SOLID SHADOW; MASK
To give the ball some “lift” from the solid ground, let’s add a shadow. Using a light wouldn’t work very well, as the ball casting the shadow would be—remember—rotating to follow the camera, so the shadow would adjust its shape in a strange way. Instead, at 0 seconds go to Layer>New>Solid, set the size to 750×750, change the color swatch to black, and click OK. As we did in Step 2, use the Ellipse tool to create a circular mask from the center to about half way to the four sides of the black solid.

12 ADJUST SETTINGS; ADD MOTION BLUR
Turn the masked solid layer into a 3D layer. Hit R to reveal its Rotation values, and set its X Rotation to 90°. Hit P to reveal its Position values, then set its Y Position to 898 until the solid is just above the floor. Hit F to reveal the mask’s Feather property and adjust to your desired softness. Finally, hit T to reveal its Opacity value, and lighten it slightly to show the floor through the shadow. Cool, eh? Now, in the Switches panel, turn on Motion Blur for the ball, shadow, and floor solid, and then click on the Enables Motion Blur icon in the Timeline. A RAM Preview sure looks great now!

13 EMBELISH & COMPLETE
Now you’re free to change out the floor for other elements and graphics, adjust the position keyframes and timing, and get more daring with the moves and find keyframe combinations that really suit the project you’re working on. The main thing is, you now have full control of your camera and can accurately animate smooth cinematographic moves without the guesswork. Enjoy!

[To download a preview version of this swirls in after effects technique, follow this link. All files are for personal use only.]

1 CREATE ILLUSTRATOR SWIRL
Let’s start out in Adobe Illustrator CS3, by far the best tool for creating such design elements—and as you’ll see, hugely important in providing the actual animation paths for us also (yes, you read that right!). Create a new document called “Swirls” at 720×540 pixels, and set the Color Mode to RGB. Click OK, then using the Pen tool, create the main stem for the left side of your design. Then switch to the Spiral tool to draw the swirl on the right. With the Direct Selection tool, select the right end point of the Pen tool path and the left end point of the swirl path and go to Object>Path>Join to create a single path.

2 ADJUST FILL; ADD LAYER & STROKE
With the path selected, go to either the Toolbox or Color panel, click the Fill icon then the None icon to remove the default white fill, leaving only the black 1-point stroke (going to View>Show Transparency Grid can help confirm this is done). In the Layers panel, double-click Layer 1, rename it “Stem,” and click OK. Then click the Create New Layer icon, rename the new layer “Branch 1,” and use the Spiral tool to draw another swirl coming out from the stem, as shown above.

3 ADD LAYERS & STROKES
Continue the same steps (new layer, draw new branch swirl, check fill is None) for as many branches you would like to have coming from the main stem. Make sure the branches start at the stem as accurately as possible. (Note: To draw a swirl in the opposite direction, click once on the artboard with the Spiral tool and select the other Style in the Spiral dialog.) In this case, I’ve created a total of four extra branches. Save your document as Swirls.ai at this point, then go to Window>Brush Libraries>Default Brushes, and choose Basic RGB.

4 ADD BRUSH STROKE; ADJUST WIDTH
With the Selection tool, select all of the stem and branch elements, and click on the second brush graphic in the Basic RGB panel to apply that style. Feel free to use any of the other Brush Libraries, or indeed create your own, to suit your taste. In the Stroke panel, adjust the Stroke Weight accordingly to achieve the desired effect (1.5 pt in this example). Save the file once more, then switch to After Effects.

5 CREATE MASTER COMP; IMPORT SWIRLS
Click the Create a New Composition icon at the bottom of the Project panel, name it “Little Swirls,” and set it to NTSC D1 Square Pixel (720×540) for consistency. Set the length to 8 seconds or so, and click OK. Now, double-click in the Project panel to bring up the Import File dialog, locate Swirls.ai, choose Import As Composition – Cropped Layers, and click Open. Double-click the new Swirls comp in the Project panel to open it. Go to Composition>Background Color and choose white so you can see the swirl elements.

6 EDIT ORIGINAL IN ILLUSTRATOR
Believe it or not, you’ve done the hardest part of the project, and have also unknowingly created the animation paths that will “reveal” the strokes perfectly. Select the main Stem layer in the Timeline, then press Command-E (PC: Ctrl-E) to Edit Original back in Illustrator. Once in the program, go to View>Outline—this is how we want After Effects to see our path shape, as we’re going to copy and paste it. Due to the fact we have a custom brush applied, however, this will most likely not work. So…

7 REMOVE STROKES; COPY & PASTE
Press Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to Select All of the lines, go to the Color panel, click the Stroke icon, and click the None icon to remove the brush stroke. As long as we don’t save this document, our brush strokes won’t be affected. Now target just the Stem layer, and press Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) to Copy the path into memory. Switch back to AE, and with the Stem layer still selected, press Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) to Paste the path as a mask shape onto the layer. Double-click on the right side of the path in the Composition panel and drag to align with the brush stroke. Press Enter when you’re done.

8 REPEAT PROCESS(ES)
Now switch back to Illustrator and do the same process for the remaining strokes: Target one of the paths in the Layers panel, copy it, switch to After Effects, select the corresponding layer, paste the path as a mask, then nudge it into position if necessary. When all the paths have been copied and pasted, switch back to Illustrator, close the file, and do not save the changes.

9 ADD STROKE EFFECT; ADJUST
Starting with the stem now, we can create one animation technique that can be re-used on all the other layers. Select the Stem layer and go to Effect>Generate>Stroke; a white stroke will appear on the layer. In the Effect Controls panel (ECP), you’ll see that Mask 1 is selected as the path being stroked. Adjust the Brush Size and Brush Hardness until the original black line is hidden; in my case, a 6-pixel stroke and 100% hardness cover it just fine.

10 ANIMATE STROKE
Now drag on the End value and you’ll see your stem drawing perfectly back and forth. See, I told you it was easy, didn’t I? All you need to do now is animate the End value across time. At 0 seconds, click the Stopwatch to set a keyframe for the End value at 0%, move along the Timeline to 2 seconds, and set the End value to 100%. Then Control-click (PC: Right-click) the second keyframe and choose Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease In. You’ll notice the line is actually erasing itself at this point, but that will change in the next step. Note: Depending on how you created the shape, you may need to animate the Start point instead.

11 SET MASK
Very cool indeed! There’s one more step, however. If you go to Composition>Background Color and set the color to a blue, you can see all we are doing is using a white stroke to hide/reveal a black stroke—which is no good if you intend to composite these swirls on a different background. Back in the ECP, simply set the Paint Style to Reveal Original Image—perfect! You’re animation should now be drawing the line instead of erasing it, as well.

12 COPY & PASTE EFFECT; ADJUST TIMING
Now the same Stroke effect, including keyframes, can be re-used for the branches. In the ECP, select the Stroke effect name at the top and Copy it. At 0 seconds in the Timeline, select the branch layers and Paste. Now, simply click-and-drag the keyframes in the Timeline to adjust the timing for each branch so that they start to reveal just after the stem has passed by, and your swirl animation is complete!

13 COMPOSITE BACKGROUND; CHANGE COLOR
Now switch to the initial Composition you created in Step 5. Import a textured background image, such as this one from iStockphoto.com (#3855804), drag it into the Timeline at 0 seconds, and scale accordingly. Then drag your animated Swirls composition over the top, and duplicate, scale, position and rotate accordingly. Now, go to Effect>Generate>Fill, change the color to white, and set the layer Blend Mode in the Timeline to Overlay. Repeat this step for each of the Swirls comp layers in the Timeline.

PHOTO CREDIT: ©ISTOCKPHOTO/BULENT INCE

14 ADJUSTMENT LAYER; GLOW
At 0 seconds, go to Layer>New>Adjustment Layer, then Effect>Color Correction>Tritone. In the ECP, change the Highlights swatch to a slight off-white, and the Midtones swatch to orange. Now choose Effect>Stylize>Glow, and set the Glow Threshold to 100% (experiment with the settings based on the background you’re using). Hit 0 on the keypad for a final RAM Preview, and your simple, single-line vector swirls from Illustrator look completely different now, not to mention that their own paths essentially self-animated! Use them creatively. Enjoy!

Step 1: [IMPORT GREEN SCREEN FOOTAGE]
Starting out in Adobe After Effects CS3 with a blank project, double-click in the Project panel to bring up the Import File dialog. Locate and select the green screen clip(s) you plan to use and click Open. Here, I’m importing three clips of our intern, Marina, shot in HD in the green screen studio. One of these clips “Green_01.mov” is available (shortened) for you to download from the Layers website. Click the Create a New Folder icon at the bottom of the Project panel, name the new folder, and drag your clips into it to store them.

Step 2: [CREATE NEW COMPOSITION]
Let’s work at the size this was intended for—NTSC Widescreen. So go to Composition>New Composition, and in the Composition Settings dialog, set the Width and Height to 960×540 (16:9) with a Pixel Aspect Ratio of Square Pixels (when working on keying, it’s easier to see clean edges and results when not viewing expanded rectangular pixels). Set the duration to at least the length of your clip (2+ seconds), then click OK. Finally, go to Composition>Background Color, click the color swatch in the Background Color dialog, and choose white in the Color Picker.

Step 3: [ADD FOOTAGE; GARBAGE MATTE]
Select your Green_01 clip and drag it straight into the Timeline. Now, when keying a large area like this with a small subject area, it’s best to first remove as much of the background as you can so the keyer has less work to do. In the Tools panel, select the Rectangle tool (Q), then click-and-drag a rectangle around the subject to remove everything except our dancing Marina. This is removing all the “garbage” we don’t need—hence the name Garbage Matte.

Step 4: [ADJUST MATTE]
Go back to the main Selection tool (V) and scrub the Current Time Indicator (CTI) in the Timeline to check that none of your subject gets cropped during playback. In the case of people dancing, jumping, and moving, arms, hands, or feet can easily go outside the garbage matte later down the line without you realizing. Simply double-click on the edge of the mask border to resize and move it accordingly—but keep it as tight as possible to the focus on the shot.

Step 5: [APPLY KEYLIGHT; SELECT KEY COLOR]
With the layer selected, go to Effect>Keying>Keylight to apply the effect. In the Effect Controls panel (ECP), click the Eyedropper tool next to the Screen Colour swatch and click on a midrange green in the image. Then, click on the Toggle Transparency Grid icon at the bottom of the Composition window to view the alpha channel—certainly not great at this point. To further illustrate this point, choose Status in the View pop-up menu in the ECP to view the simple transparency information.

Step 6: [ADJUST KEYLIGHT SETTINGS]
Twirl down Screen Matte in the ECP, and drag the Clip Black until the gray area around Marina is black (around 48–50). Drag the Clip White to get Marina as white as possible, leaving some green (around 80). Now choose Screen Matte in the View pop-up to see the actual matte, then adjust Screen Shrink/Grow to –0.2 to trim the edges of the alpha channel slightly. Now switch View to Final Result, and the first part of the key is complete.

Step 7: [CHOKE MATTE]
Turn the Transparency Grid off to return the white backdrop. This reveals that we have slightly jagged edges, but we can easily smooth them out. Go to Effect>Matte>Matte Choker, and in the ECP adjust Geometric Softness 1 to around 4 and Choke 1 to around 2 pixels (no more). This gives us a much better edge to the key—perfect for an image like this at this size. If you scrub your Timeline now, the key is looking good, so let’s restore some color into the clip and give it some punch.

Step 8: [ADJUST COLOR]
Go to Effect>Color Correction>Auto Color to auto-boost the color. Now go back and choose Levels from the same submenu, and in the ECP, adjust the Input White to around 235 to boost the brightness of the clip. To reduce the slight green colorcast that still remains, go back to Effect>Color Correction and choose Curves.

Step 9: [ADJUST CURVES; SAVE PRESET]
In the Curves controls, choose Blue from the Channel menu, then drag a point from the middle of the graph slightly up and left to lighten the channel, bringing a little more red back into the image—perfect! As keys and color adjustments go, this is a good template to use, so let’s save a preset for reapplication. In the ECP, Shift-select Keylight 1.2, Matte Choker, Auto Color, Levels, and Curves to select them all, then go to Animation>Save Animation Preset. Name it “Key & Color.ffx” and click Save.

Step 10: [REUSING PRESETS]
Reapplying the saved preset to other clips will either work perfectly, terribly, or be somewhat usable—depending on the clip. We’ve added two more clips from the green screen shoot to the Timeline, one medium distance and one close-up (you can use your own footage or drag in the same clip that you used for the previous steps). To use your new preset, select a clip in the Timeline, go to Animation>Recent Animation Presets, and choose Key & Color. In this example, the same settings from Green_01 are too harsh on Green_02, but the color adjustment matches fine. A couple of tweaks then…

Step 11: [ADJUST KEYLIGHT & MATTE CHOKER]
In the ECP for Keylight, we adjusted the Clip Black value to around 20 to reintroduce some of the softness around the hair. Then, under Matte Choker, we changed the Geometric Softness 1 to 10 and the Choke 1 value to 1. This softened the edge of the matte for this medium zoom image quite nicely. Now, moving on to the close-up Green_03, this is a true test of keying settings—loose hair transparency! Selecting the clip, we applied the same Animation Preset once more.

Step 12: [ADJUST SETTINGS FOR HAIR]
We then played with the Screen Matte settings in Keylight to bring the hair softness back in. We adjusted the Clip Black to around 14, and then in this instance, turned off the Matte Choker effect by clicking the small fx icon next to its name in the ECP. Looking pretty good! As you can see, an initial key created for one clip can easily be reused and adjusted for each future keying operation, with the simple use of an Animation Preset.

Step 13: [COMPOSITE BACKGROUND; CHANGE COLOR]
Now that you have your clip(s) nicely and very cleanly keyed, the After Effects world is your oyster. Add new backgrounds, new effects, type titles, movies, logos—whatever works to complete your project and present your keyed footage as cleanly and strongly as possible. Enjoy!

[If you’d like download the image used in this tutorial to practice this technique and also to preview the final effect, click here. All files are for personal use only.]

1 CREATE COMPOSITION & BACKDROP
Let’s start out by creating a composition to hold our titles. We’re focusing on type animation for this tutorial, so we’ll use simple background elements instead of footage. In After Effects, click on the Create a New Composition icon at the bottom of the Project panel and create a new 20-second composition using the HDV/HDTV 720 29.97 preset, name it “Where there’s Smoke” and click OK. Then double-click in the Project panel to bring up the Import File dialog and import the Backdrop image [Backdrop image is available for download by clicking here]. Drag the backdrop image into the Timeline at 0 seconds.

2 ADD AND FORMAT TYPE
At 0 seconds, go to Layer>New>Text, to create a new text layer in the center of the comp. Type the words you desire, then use the Character panel to size, track, and style the text accordingly. This first line of text will be our intro for the main title. In my case, I’m using one of my all-time favorite typefaces, Walbaum, from Veer.com. Both classic and modern, it suits clean typographic work nicely.

3 ADD OPACITY ANIMATOR; ADJUST
Go back to the Selection tool (V) so the entire text layer is highlighted, then twirl down the text layer in the Timeline. Next to Text, click on the right-facing arrow next to Animate and choose Opacity from the flyout menu to add an opacity Animator 1. Twirl that down, and then twirl down both Range Selector 1 and Advanced. Set Shape to Ramp Up, and drag the animator’s Opacity value down to 0%. You’ll see the right half of the line fades out. Finally, adjust the Range Selector’s Offset value to –100%, and the type is now invisible.

4 KEYFRAME ANIMATOR; ADD BLUR
At 1 second along the Timeline, click the Stopwatch next to Offset to add a keyframe. Then, move along to 4 seconds and adjust the offset to +100%, revealing the type. Control-click (PC: Right-click) on that second keyframe and choose Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease In. Now, click on the Add option next to Animator 1, and choose Property>Blur from the bottom of the flyout menu. This adds the Blur function into this already animated item. Simply adjust the Blur value to around 30, then scrub the Timeline and see the result!

5 CREATE SMOKY SOLID
Now we need the “smoke” that we’ll use to reveal the type. Go back to 0 seconds, then go to Layer>New>Solid. Click the Make Comp Size button, check the color is black, name it “Smoke Solid,” and click OK. Now go to Effect>Noise & Grain>Fractal Noise, and in the Effect Controls panel, set the Contrast to 140, Complexity to 12, and twirl down Transform and set Scale to 160. Animating any and all of these items can create moving smoke nicely, so feel free to play around with these settings at any time.

6 ANIMATE SMOKE MASK POSITION
Go to the Toolbar and select the Ellipse tool. Click-and-drag over the center of the smoke to create a mask shape of your chosen size. Go back to the Selection tool, and in the Timeline click on the Eye icon next to Animator 1 to disable it. Double-click on the edge of the smoke mask, then drag it over the start of the text line. At 1 second, press Shift-Option-M (PC: Shift-Alt-M) to add a mask keyframe, scrub to 4 seconds, and drag the mask to the end of the text line. Be sure to Easy Ease In that second keyframe.

7 ANIMATE SMOKE MASK OPACITY
At 1 second, press Shift-T to show the layer’s Opacity. Add a keyframe and change the value to 0%. At 2 seconds, set the value to 100%, and at 4 seconds back to 0%. Shift-click to select all three keyframes and go to Animation>Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease. Press Shift-F to show the Mask Feather value and adjust it to 100 pixels. In the Mode column, set the layer blend mode to Screen to remove the black edges. (If you don’t see the Mode column, Control-click [PC: Right-click] on Source Name and select Columns>Modes.) Finally, turn back on the visibility icon for Animator 1 on the text layer, and view your results. Very smoky, very nice!

8 ANIMATE TEXT OFF
Now we want to use another animator to “wipe” the text back off before the main title appears. Twirl up Animator 1 (be sure it’s not selected). Click on Animate next to Text and choose Opacity once again. This adds Animator 2. Use the exact same settings as in Step 3 but set the Shape to Ramp Down instead. Then, keyframe the Range Selector’s Offset from –100% at 5 seconds to +100% at 7 seconds. Select the first keyframe, use Easy Ease Out, and your text intro is perfectly animated.

9 ADD MAIN TITLE LAYER
Twirl up the text and smoke layers, and at 8 seconds go to Layer>New>Text. Add and style your main title accordingly, making sure to keep all the words on this one layer. This example uses a font called Freebooter Script. Use different font sizes and change the baseline shift as needed. For example, we set the smaller text at 45 pixels and the larger text at 175 pixels. We then added Returns after each “There’s,” adjusted the baseline shift for the various lines, and then added a few spaces before the word “Smoke.” Position the text layer in the center as shown here.

10 ANIMATE MAIN TITLE OPACITY
Twirl down the new text layer and add a new opacity Animator. Twirl down all the options, and set them once again to the same values we used in Step 3 (Opacity 0%, Ramp Up, Offset –100%), but change the Based On option to Words. At 8 seconds, add a keyframe for the Offset value, and at 11 seconds change it to +100%. Then be sure to Easy Ease In the second keyframe. It’s cool that the exact same settings can be used again, but it gives a different effect when set to Words and not Characters!

11 ADD NEW TITLE ANIMATOR
Twirl up Animator 1, deselect it, then add a second Animator choosing Position. Click on Add (next to Animator 2) and choose Property>Rotation, and then click on it again and choose Selector>Wiggly. Twirl down the Wiggly Selector, and set Wiggles/Second to 0 and Correlation to 30%. Most importantly, set the Min Amount value to 0%, which means when we animate these characters with random values, they’ll only move in one direction: forward.

12 ADD 3D; ANIMATE VALUES
Click on the Animate option next to Text, and choose Enable Per-Character 3D, which activates multiple axes for Position and Rotation in the Animator. At 13 seconds, add a keyframe for Position and the X, Y, and Z Rotation values of Animator 2. Then, at 18 seconds, adjust the values as desired. Be sure to adjust the third Position value (Z axis) to a negative number, pulling the characters toward you. When done, select the four keyframes at 13 seconds and set them to Easy Ease Out.

13 APPLY BLUR
As a final nod towards the “smoky” feel, go ahead click on Add again and choose the Property>Blur option to add it into Animator 2. Keyframe it across the same 13–18 second timeframe (including Easy Ease Out), starting at 0 and ending however blurred you wish to see it (85 in this example). Now as you scrub the Timeline from 8 to 18 seconds, you can see the “simple” animator bringing the words in separately, and the “detailed” animator randomly moving and spinning the letters towards the viewer and “smoking” them out in the process. Beautiful!

14 ADDITIONAL EMBELLISHMENTS
As an additional flourish to this piece, you could add a 3D camera (Layer>New>Camera—we used the 50mm Preset) to the scene and animate its z axis so it moves toward the middle from 13–19 seconds to make the letters fly “behind” the camera and offscreen (we set our Z axis to –200 at 19 seconds). At the same time, you could add an effect such as Turbulent Displace (Effect>Distort>Turbulent Displace) and animate it’s Amount over the same time period from 0 to 150, making the letters simply “wisp” away. Some very powerful type animation options, achieved using a handful of simple Text Animators. Enjoy!

[If you’d like to preview the final effect, click here. All files are for personal use only.]

1 IMPORT/CREATE 3D SCENE
To begin, you’ll need a 3D scene with a camera in After Effects. The best way to do this is to use the wonderful Vanishing Point Exchange (VPE) feature between Photoshop CS3 Extended and After Effects CS3, which was the subject of my “Two-Dee Three-Dee” tutorial (see Layers magazine, Nov/Dec 2007, p. 94). You can also build one yourself by using solids or imported, texture images. For this tutorial, I’ve created a VPE from a still image of a long corridor, imported it into AE, and opened its composition.

©ISTOCKPHOTO

2 ADJUST CAMERA SETTINGS
In your Timeline, double-click the Camera icon to bring up its settings dialog and make any changes to enhance your scene. In this case, we chose 35mm from the Preset menu. Make sure that the Enable Depth of Field checkbox is disabled and click OK. Then go to Layer>Transform>Auto Orient, click the Off radio button, and click OK. Now hit the P key to reveal the camera’s Position property in the Timeline, and drag on the X, Y, and Z values to position your camera to a more interesting angle in your scene.

3 ADD SPOTLIGHT; ADJUST SETTINGS
At 0 seconds along the Timeline, go to Layer>New>Light. In the Light Settings dialog, select Spot from the Light Type option, set Intensity to 100%, Cone Angle to 90°, and Cone Feather to 50%. Check the Casts Shadows box on, with 100% Darkness and 0 pixels Diffusion. Most importantly, click the Color swatch, set the color to a very light cream—a more accurate simulation of daylight, as light is not pure white—and click OK to close the Color Picker. Click OK to add the light, and it’ll appear in the scene, which is suddenly very dark!

4 POSITION SPOTLIGHT; ADJUST 3D SHADING
With the light selected, hit P to show its Position property, and place it centrally on X and Y, but further back on the Z axis, behind the camera (as the camera would be inside the “room”). The corridor is slightly lit, but overly bright at the end. Select all the layers that make up your walls, ceiling, floor, etc., and press AA to reveal their 3D Material properties. Change Diffuse to 0%, Specular to 30%, and Shininess to 0% for all of the 3D layers. This sets us up for the all-important ambient light.

5 CREATE AMBIENT LIGHT
Still at 0 seconds on the Timeline, go to Layer>New>Light, and from the dialog choose Ambient for the Light Type. Set the Intensity to 70% and check that the same off-white (daylight) color has been selected from the Color swatch. Click OK, and the scene is now additionally lit with ambient light, making it much more pleasing and realistic. Note: If you hit P, Ambient lights don’t contain position values: They add light to all parts of a scene, regardless of position or orientation.

6 MAKE WINDOW SHAPE
Now we’ll create the window shape through which our spotlight will shine from outside. The best way to do this is in Adobe Illustrator, using a solid black shape with a “hole” shape(s) created on top, and then turned into a Compound Path using the Pathfinder function. You can also do this in After Effects by creating a solid (Layer>New>Solid), using the rectangular mask tools to create the hole areas, then setting the mask modes to Subtract; however, Illustrator is more accurate and can create more intricate shapes.

7 IMPORT, POSITION, AND SCALE WINDOW
In After Effects, double-click in the Project panel to locate and then import the Illustrator file from Step 6. Drag it from the Project panel into the Timeline, click the 3D Layer switch in the Switches panel, hit S to reveal its Scale value, and adjust (if necessary) to fit across your room. Now reveal the Position property, and position the “window” back along the Z axis to sit in front of the spotlight (Light 1). In the Composition window, click on Active Camera, and switch to Custom View 1 to check the relative positions.

8 ACTIVATE “SECRET” SHADOWS
Switch back to Active Camera in the Composition window. Now you might ask two questions: “Why is the scene black?” and “Where are the shadows from the window?” The scene is black (in this case) because the black window image is sitting right in front of our camera—but making it transparent wouldn’t allow shadows to be cast. So, with the window layer selected, hit AA to reveal the 3D properties, and next to Casts Shadows, click on Off twice to choose Only. Very cool indeed!

9 ADD RAIN OUTSIDE WINDOW
To add outside elements, it’s best to use animated clips such as rain, snow, leaves, etc. For rain, I’ve imported a clip (UW124) from the Ultra Water collection by Artbeats. For a moment, set the Casts Shadows option on the window layer back to Off, then drag the “weather” clip into the Timeline, and once again click its 3D Layer switch. Access its Position property, position it just a shade outside the window layer, then hit S, and scale it down to just larger than the hole area of the window.

10 COLOR ADJUST RAIN LAYER
Go to Effect>Color Adjustment and choose Hue/Saturation. In the Effect Controls panel, drag the Master Saturation value to –100. Go back to the same Effect menu and choose Levels. Then in the Histogram section of the Effect Controls panel, drag the black, mid, and white points closer and more centrally to “crush” the levels, making the rain as white as possible on a black background, with as little grey detail as possible. This will make the raindrops more solid, casting better shadows.

11 CREATE ALPHA CHANNEL; ACTIVATE SHADOWS
Finally, go to Effects>Channel>Shift Channels, and choose Luminance from the Take Alpha From menu to make the raindrops appear on a transparent background. Now, select both the rain and window layers, hit AA to reveal the 3D properties, and set both of their Casts Shadows options to Only (clicking Off twice). Now if you hit 0 on the keypad to do a RAM Preview, you’ll see animated rain shadows in your room being cast from a light outside! Very cool, but we’re not done yet….

12 ADJUST SPEED, OPACITY, HEIGHT
Depending on the speed of your rain clip, it might look like snow instead. If this is the case, hit the {} icon in the lower-left corner of the Timeline to show the Time Stretch options, and adjust the Stretch value of your clip accordingly—in our example, 50% faster. Hit T to reveal the Opacity options, and change it to around 50%. Finally, to make the rain taller, show the Scale property, uncheck the link icon next to the values, and adjust the Y value (height) to around 500%. Much better!

13 OFFSET ANGLES FOR AESTHETICS
To give the scene a little less accuracy, let’s tilt the window shadow slightly to give it an interesting angle. Close the Time Stretch options, then Control-click (PC: Right-click) in the top of the Switches panel and choose Columns>Parent. Under the Parent panel for the rain layer, click the Pickwhip icon and drag it onto the name of the window layer to link them together. Now select the window layer, hit R to show its rotation values, and drag the value in either direction to rotate both the window and rain together!

14 ADDITIONAL EMBELLISHMENTS
A few more things can be done to enhance this scene. Select the spotlight, and move it on the X, Y, or Z position to adjust the angles and size of the shadows being cast into the room. You can go to Layer>New>Adjustment Layer, then add effects such as Hue/Saturation and Levels to adjust the color and contrast of the whole scene—even easier if you have Look Suite from Magic Bullet (thank you, Red Giant!). And, you can animate the camera through your incredibly realistic scene. Enjoy!!

[If you’d like to preview the final effect, click here to download. All files are for personal use only.]

1 Import Image Files
The specs for this project are an NTSC D1 square-pixel composition of 720×450 pixels, 29.97 frames per second, six seconds long, a black background, and named “Flame.” The first step is to assemble the elements you want to use. In this case, we’re going to use three items: a logo (or icon), a texture for the floor, and a movie clip for the flame. Double-click in the Project panel to bring up the Import dialog, then locate the items you wish to use. For our example, we’ll import an 1800×1800-pixel file called “Texture.psd,” and a small 350×73-pixel vector logo called “Energi Text.ai.”

2 Import Movie File
Now locate the movie clip of fire or flame you wish to use (this could also be one you’ve created with a particle system such as the one in Motion). We’re bringing in one of Artbeats’ wonderful flame clips from their ReelFire 1 collection, “RF108.mov.” Now all these items are assembled in the Project panel, we can start to piece the scene together.

ARBEATS REELFILE 1 COLLECTION

3 Create 3D Floor; Rotate
Select your texture image in the Project panel and drag it into the Timeline at 0 seconds. Click the 3D Layer icon in the Switches panel for this layer, then go to the Active Camera menu at the bottom of the Composition window, and choose Custom View 1. Press R on the keyboard to reveal the layer’s Rotation property, then click on the +0.0° value next to X Rotation and change it to +90°, pressing Enter to confirm when done. This rotates the texture to become the floor.

4 Add 3D Logo; Position & Scale
Press C on the keyboard to access the Orbit Camera tool and drag it around in the Composition window to view the scene from a better angle. Press V to return to the Selection tool. Now, drag your logo or icon (ours is Energi Text.ai) image from the Project panel into the Timeline above the image at 0 seconds also. Turn this into a 3D layer, then drag the green Y-axis arrow in the Composition window to position the logo above the floor. To scale the logo up or down, press S on the keyboard to reveal the Scale property and adjust it to suit your design.

5 Add 3D Flame; Adjust Anchor Point
Now drag in the your flame clip at 0 seconds in the Timeline—note how the layer’s anchor point is in the center of the rectangle. Select the Pan Behind tool (Y) from the Toolbar and drag the flame’s anchor point toward the lower middle of the flame itself. This will make scaling and positioning easier, as this is the point from which the layer will transform. It will also give us a handy reference for the position of our light in a short while.

6 Key Flame; Make 3D Layer
Let’s quickly remove the black background of the clip. Press V to return to the Selection tool, then go to Effect>Channel>Shift Channels. In the Effect Controls panel (ECP), choose Red from the Take Alpha From option to use the layer’s red channel to create transparency. Now, go to Effect>Channel>Remove Color Matting and the original brightness and color of the flame will be restored. Now, click this layer’s 3D switch in the Timeline to turn it into another 3D layer.

7 Scale & Position Flame
Switch from Custom View 1 to Front, then hit S to reveal the flame’s Scale property. Drag to the left on any one of the three 100% numbers and scale the flame down to the size you prefer. Then use the green Y- and red X-axis arrows in the Composition window to move the flame into the desired location. In our case, it’s going to sit directly on top of the I in ENERGI.

8 Add Point Light; Turn On Shadows
Switch back to Custom View 1 now, then go to Layer>New>Light and in the resulting Light Settings dialog, choose Point from the Light Type pop-up menu. This creates a light source that shines in all directions (we called it Firelight). Turn Casts Shadows on, set the Intensity to 120%, Shadow Darkness to 60%, and the Shadow Diffusion to 20%, then click OK. A new light is sitting toward the lower right of our scene and you should be able to see it illuminating a small section of the floor—not a bad start!

9 Position Light within Flame
Let’s position the light in exactly the same location as the flame, as that’s where the light source is to come from—and this is also why we adjusted the anchor point of the flame! Select the flame layer, hit P to reveal its Position value, click on the word Position, and then press Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) to copy the value. Now, select the Firelight layer, press P, select the word Position, and press Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) to paste in the copied value. Perfect—except everything’s gone dark, and there are no shadows…

10 Adjust 3D Material Properties
Adding lights in After Effects only illuminates layers that are a distance from the light source (such as the floor); but this light is in the right position, so let’s tell the logo and flame to self-illuminate. Select both the logo and flame layers in the Timeline, then hit AA to reveal their 3D Material properties. Set the Accepts Lights option to Off and you’ll see the layers again. Now, select only the logo layer and change Casts Shadows to On.

11 Change Light Color; Add Intensity Expression
Now, let’s make the light source much more realistic. Double-click the Firelight layer to bring up the Light Settings dialog, click the Color swatch and change it to a light orange. Click OK, then press AA to reveal the Light Options in the Timeline. Hold down Option (PC: Alt) and click on the stopwatch next to Intensity to add an Expression field. Type “wiggle(10,40)” in the filed and then press Enter to confirm. If you scrub the Timeline now, you can see the light intensity flickering very nicely on the floor.

12 Add Position Expression
To now reveal the shadows and make them “dance” as the flames jump around, let’s use a similar Expression for the Firelight’s position. Press P to reveal its Position property, then Option-click (PC: Alt-click) on the stopwatch to add an Expression field. This time, type “wiggle(2,100)” and then press Enter to confirm. If you now press 0 on the keypad to RAM Preview, you’ll see the shadows cast from the logo moving very nicely across the floor, and also beautifully diffused as they get further away from the light source.

13 Add Camera; Adjust & Keyframe
Now we can create a simple camera move around the logo to really get a sense of space. At 0 seconds, go to Layer>New>Camera, then choose 28mm from the Preset pop-up menu in the Camera Settings dialog. Click OK, then in the Composition window, switch back to Active Camera. Press C and drag the Orbit Camera tool around to set your starting view, then press P and click the stopwatch to add a Position keyframe for the camera at 0 seconds.

14 Animate Camera
Hit End on the keyboard to jump to 6 seconds, then drag the Orbit Camera tool again to set your end view. Do a final RAM Preview, or render, and you should see some wonderfully realistic lighting effects, making this simple scene so much more alive. Remember the light intensity, color, shadow darkness, diffusion, and position movement, as well as the relative distances between the light, the floor, and the logo can all be adjusted to get infinitely varied results. Enjoy!

The specs for this project are arbitrary and will depend entirely on the original image you choose to work with (unless you follow along with the download), but requires that you have Photoshop CS3 Extended and After Effects CS3 to make use of the new Vanishing Point Exchange features.

[If you’d like to download the project file used here to follow along with this tutorial (as well as preview the final effect), click here or visit http://layersmagazine.com/downloads.html. All files are for personal use only.]

STEP 1 Select High-Res Image
By far the most important step in this process is selecting the right image. Choose one with clean, sharp perspective angles and edges, but also ensure the image is as high resolution as possible. The Vanishing Point Exchange (VPE) process will bend and distort sections of your image to make 3D panels, so the higher the image resolution, the less “tearing” you’ll notice, especially when reducing it down to video resolution at the end. For this tutorial, I’ve chosen an image I took with a Canon EOS 5D in Brussels, which is 2048×1365 pixels at 240ppi.

STEVE HOLMES

STEP 2 Open Image in Vanishing Point
Open your image in Photoshop CS3 Extended, then choose Filter>Vanishing Point to open the Vanishing Point dialog. Determine which area of the image contains the most promising section to build a perspective grid from, then zoom in to 100% on that area. Here, the central wall between the two turrets on the right is the perfect area to start. Choose the Create Plane tool (C) and, beginning with the top-left corner of the wall, click on all the four corners in a clockwise direction to create the basic perspective grid angles.

STEP 3 Adjust Panel Dimensions
Zoom back out so you can see the whole image, then using the Edit Plane tool (which should be selected by default when you click the fourth grid point), adjust the width and height of the new grid panel to cover the boundaries of that section (e.g., the sky, edge, etc.). We’re building a 3D image from this but a simple grid is faster, and most times better because too many perspective grids in one image can yield strange results. Note: We’re putting the left edge on the side of the turret where it bends backward at 45°.

STEP 4 Create Angled Panel
Now let’s create our second panel angle. Hold down Command (PC: Ctrl) then click-and-drag the left-center control handle to the left to create a new panel in perfect perspective (at 90° to the first one). In this case, we need a 45° panel to match the edge of the turret, so hold down Option (PC: Alt) and drag the left-center control handle of the new panel to the left to rotate it to the correct angle. You can also enter 135° in the Angle field at the top of the dialog. Adjust the width again if necessary.

STEP 5 Create Third Panel
Now we can reuse these techniques to finish the grid easily. Command-drag (PC: Ctrl-drag) the new left-center handle to create the third panel, which again will come in at 90° to the previous one. Rotate it back round to 135° by either Option-dragging (PC: Alt-dragging) the left handle again, or entering the value at the top of the dialog. Then adjust the width and height of the panel to be sure to cover the height of the image.

STEP 6 Create Final Panel
Finally, Command-drag (PC: Ctrl-drag) the left-center handle of the last panel to the left to create the final panel at 90°, which for this image is just the right angle. Again, be sure to extend the panel to reach the edge of the image, and adjust the height accordingly. It’s not important that all the grids are the same height, just as long as they cover the available pixels in the image.

STEP 7 Export VPE
The hard work is done! Click the rather obscure right-facing triangle at the top of the Vanishing Point dialog, to the left of Grid Size, and choose Export to After Effects CS3 (.vpe). Select your destination, but I do recommend creating a new folder and exporting into it. The VPE export doesn’t create one file, but many: one VPE “construction” file, one 3D data file, and one image file for each of the panels you created. Naturally, it’s better to keep all of these in one snug location. [

STEP 8 Import VPE to After Effects
Now click OK in the Vanishing Point dialog and save the file as a PSD, because the 3D grids will be saved with it in case you need them again in the future.

Now switch to After Effects CS3, create a new, empty project, then go to File>Import>Vanishing Point (.vpe). Locate the folder that you saved the VPE into, and select the file with the VPE extension (ours is Cathedral.vpe). Click OK, and you’ll see a new folder and composition appear in the Project panel.

STEP 9 Open Comp; Adjust Camera
Double-click the new composition to open it, and press , (Comma) a couple of times to reduce the preview size to see the entire image. Looks just like the photo, doesn’t it? Well, hit C on the keyboard to access the Orbit Camera tool and now drag around inside the Comp window. That’s not simply a photograph anymore! Note: This is one of those instances where an up-to-date video card with at least 256 MB VRAM and support for OpenGL 2.0 comes in very useful.

STEP 10 Keyframe Camera Movement
Select the Camera in the Timeline, and press P then Shift-R to reveal its Position and Rotation properties, respectively. Making sure you’re at 0 seconds in the Timeline, click the Stopwatches next to Position and Orientation to add a keyframe for each. Now drag the Time Indicator as far down the Timeline as you want the animation to take (we chose 5 seconds), then drag on the Position and Orientation values until you reach the final view angle you desire.

STEP 11 Ease Keyframes; Import Logo File
Select the last two keyframes and press Shift-F9 (Animation>Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease In) to ease the motion into the end. So now that we have a 2D/3D environment, we should be able to insert any new 3D items directly into the scene, right? Yes, but with care.

In After Effects, import an Illustrator file of a logo or something similar to be inserted into the scene by going to File>Import>File. Then drag the file (here, Lion of Flanders.ai) into the Timeline, and hit Option-Home (PC: Alt-Home) to ensure it starts at 0 seconds.

STEP 12 Create 3D Layer
Now, under the Switches panel in the Timeline, click the 3D Layer icon for the new logo. Chances are your logo doesn’t align at 0° or 90° to the part of the image you expect, such as our case with the left-edge panel. You can adjust, position, and rotate the logo to match if you like, but it’s probably going to take time and still not match—so let’s use a workaround.

STEP 13 Duplicate and Replace Panel
Delete the logo layer, then in the Timeline select the panel image you want the logo to be parallel to (such as the main left background panel here), and press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to duplicate it (with all its rotation and position settings). Keeping it selected, go to the Project panel, select your logo file, hold down Option (PC: Alt), and drag it directly onto the duplicated 3D panel to replace it. You’ll see its top-left corner align with the old panel’s corner.

STEP 14 Reposition Logo; Animate
Now you can click-and-drag on any of the three colored axis arrows in the Comp window to reposition the logo in a 3D space, which perfectly matches the rest of the image! Hit 0 on the keypad to render a RAM preview and you’ll see your logo moving in perfect perspective with your image—which, remember, started out as just a digital photo! And this is only the very tip of the iceberg. As I said, this is the best new feature in After Effects CS3. Believe it now? Enjoy, my friends!

The specs for this project are a square-pixel composition of 800×450 pixels (16:9 aspect but intended for Flash video), 29.97 frames per second, 5 seconds long, with a background color of white, and named “Army Comp”.

STEP 1 Set up New Shape Layer Group
Let’s start out by taking a look at how to successfully build shape layers. You can use the shape tools in the Toolbox but I find it better to create them using the menus because it’s easier to organize all the “extras” we’ll need. First, go to Layer>New>Shape Layer. Twirl down the Shape Layer 1 that appears in the Timeline, then twirl down Contents—it should be empty. Go to the Add menu under the Switches column, and choose Group (empty).

STEP 2 Add Path; Fill with Gradient; Edit Gradient
Go back to Add and choose Polystar. A new shape appears in the Group and you’ll also see a star path in the Comp window—but no color. Go back to Add, choose Gradient Fill, then click the gradient swatch next to Fill in the Toolbox to access the Gradient Editor. Make the color changes you desire, then click OK. Using the Selection tool (V), you can drag the gradient points around inside the shape to define the direction and length of the gradient fill. Good so far.

STEP 3 Add & Edit Stroke; Add Repeater 1
For good measure, go to Add>Stroke, twirl down Stroke 1, and set the Color to black, the Stroke Width to 6 pt, and the Line Join to Round Join. (Just as an aside here: The stroke was created above the fill, which means it can also be dragged down below the fill.) So, we have our first (and only master) shape. How do we get more—lots more? Making sure either Stroke 1 or Group 1 is still selected, go to Add>Repeater. Suddenly, we have three stars!

STEP 4 Adjust Repeater 1
Twirl up the Stroke, and select the Repeater. Press Return to rename it and call it “Five Long,” as we’ll be adding another Repeater later, and this makes it much easier to identify. Twirl down its options and change Copies to 5 and Offset to –2. Now twirl down Transform: Five Long, and change the Position value to 200,0 to add more space between the duplicates. Now that you see how easy it is to make extra shapes, we’ll use a similar technique to add hundreds more.

STEP 5 Add Repeater 2; Adjust Settings
Twirl up all of Five Long, then go to Add>Repeater again. Press Return to rename it, calling this one “Twenty Deep.” You can imagine what’s coming up. Twirl down Twenty Deep, and change Copies to 20 but leave Offset at 0. Twirl down Transform: Twenty Deep, and change Position to 0,0, then set the Scale to 90%. How cool is that? Each duplicate (from the first set of duplicates) now gets progressively smaller into the distance—and all this from one original star-shaped path.

STEP 6 Use Custom Shape
Stars are okay, but using a custom shape is much more desirable, and very easy. Twirl the Repeater(s) up, select Group 1, then go to Add>Path. Twirl it down and you’ll see the word “Path” (note that it has a keyframe stopwatch). You can use the tools to create your own shape here but if you have an Illustrator shape ready, simply copy its path (in AI) into memory. Back in After Effects, turn off the visibility icon for Polystar Path 1, then click the word “Path” under Path 1, and simply paste—very cool indeed!

STEP 7 Import Green Screen Footage
Potentially, barring a few keyframes here and there, this is where your exploration of shape layers might fizzle out. Static shapes are cool if you animate their repeater values, but how about using static repetitions with animated shapes? Perhaps, an outline of someone running? Call the Energi hotline! Locate and import a piece of footage, such as someone walking or running against a green screen background, then drag the clip onto the Create a New Composition icon at the bottom of the Project panel.

STEP 8 Garbage Matte; Apply Keylight
In this case, the footage has too much “garbage” visible beyond the green screen, so use the Pen tool to draw a mask area around the person to “matte” it—but be sure not to cut off any parts of them as they move around—always scrub the Timeline and double-check. When done, go back to the Selection tool, then go to Effect>Keying>Keylight. In the Effect Controls Panel (ECP), click the eyedropper next to Screen Colour (yes, English spelling!), and click on the green background in the footage.

STEP 9 Show Keylight Status
Initially, it might look like the key is good; but it almost always isn’t—and we want ours to be sharp and strong for the vector process coming up. Keylight has some great options to really get the best result, so in the ECP, go to the View pop-up menu and choose Status. This shows a simple analysis of the key in three areas: white is opaque, black is transparent, and gray is any transparency between. In this case, you can see that almost the entire matte is transparent, and not defined.

STEP 10 Adjust Keylight; Check Matte
Twirl down the Screen Matte options, and slowly start to drag (increase) the Clip Black value until you see the outside, original green area become black and reveal the person. Then, decrease the Clip White value until the person’s outline becomes more opaque. When done, you can go to View and choose Screen Matte to see the results, but be sure to choose Final Result in the View pop-up menu when finished.

STEP 11 Pre-Comp Keying; Auto-trace
We now want After Effects to create a vector-based animated trace of this alpha channel we’ve created, so first select the movie clip layer and go to Layer>Pre-Compose. Check Move All Attributes Into The New Composition and click OK. Now go to Layer>Auto-trace and in the Auto-trace dialog, be sure to select Work Area, and ensure that Alpha is visible in the Channel pop-up menu. Finally, select Apply to New Layer and click OK to start the Auto-trace procedure.

STEP 12 Reveal and Copy Mask 1
When it’s finished, you’ll see a new Solid in your composition, with a many-pointed path around the outside. Select the solid and scrub the Timeline, and you can see that an animated mask has been created—perfect! Press M to reveal all the masks and you’ll see there’s more than one—any compound shapes have also been traced; however, Mask 1 (the outer shape with the most keyframes) is the one we want. Click on the words “Mask Path” below Mask 1 to select all the keyframes, and copy them (Command-C [PC: Ctrl-C]).

STEP 13 Paste Mask Keyframes
Here comes the cool part! Switch back to the main Army Comp we started with and make sure you can see the Shape Layer options. Ensure that the Polystar Path 1 item is still turned off (you could even delete it), then twirl down Path 1 again, and click on the word “Path” just like we did in Step 6. Now, press Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) to paste the animated mask keyframes into the path—and you now have 100 completely animated shape layer outlines!

STEP 14 Final Tweaks
From here, you can make various adjustments to the shape layer, the Repeaters, and the values to achieve many different effects. Try playing with the Anchor Point, Position, Scale, and Rotation settings within either (or both) of the Repeaters, and feel free to add keyframes to those to change them over time.

The result here is incredible: the effect of 100+ 3D layers, arranged in perfect alignment and all moving at the same time—something that would have been nigh-on impossible before. Enjoy!